What is a shipped project?

For hardware project, the definition of “shipped” is a little different than a normal software project. There is usually no “playable link” which means it is harder for people to really know what you made.

Shipping (at least in this context) involves publishing your design out there for the world to see. Making it very real. This involves a couple steps:

  • Documenting your project and the journey you took to make it
    • A quick story/motivation on how the project came to be
    • A description of what the project is
    • Some pictures of the design (hopefully you have some cool renders)
    • Showing the journey you took to make it
  • Making all files & resources easily accessible & organized
    • The files you provide should be enough for people to recreate your project themselves.
      • For PCB’s: Gerbers, BOMS, pickandplace files
      • For 3d designs: OBJ files, STEP files (STL’s are not easy to modify)
      • A README.md and a journal explain how it works and how to recreate it

- Putting it on a platform that's easily shareable (i.e github, printables, etc)

Here are some great examples of shipped projects. Notice how the files are organized using folders, and, more importantly, it’s well documented what the project is about and what you can do with it!

Keyboards & Macropads:

3D printers:

Misc projects:

When you make your repository nothing but a dump of files and 2 sentences for a README, what happens is that it’s hard for other people to recognize your work, nor does it make it easy to learn from. It’s not real. It only lives on in your tiny corner of this earth.